New smac site!!!

[LoD]

http://www.smac.prv.pl

Comments welcome .

LoD

[Hydro]

LoD,

It's great to see a new SMAC site, and yours is well done! I was even inspired to download DD's Ultimate Builder's Map after reading his articles, and I will try it out in the near future.

Hydro

[JAMiAM]

The site is well organized, and visually pleasing. Load times are good, at least here at home with my cable modem. I'll try at work later on, where I'm limited to a 56k dial-up modem. There are some spelling errors on some of the pages, but overall the site is very good.

I was forwarded MoSe's email reply to you, and agree in principle with his observations regarding "team league" play. I think that SMAC is not particularly well suited for this type of play.

I noticed the front page had an option to choose between Polish and English versions. Is there a thriving SMAC community in Poland?

[Misotu]

Great site LoD! Finally got me to try the Nomad challenge

JAMiAM, I didn't see the comments on team play, but I've played a few team games of SMAC now and I think it works pretty well in fact. What do you feel are the drawbacks?

[JAMiAM]

Misotu,

The team play concept has some pros and cons. My own humble opinion is that the pros are outweighed by the cons.

Pros:

1) Fosters a comraderie among players. Particularly within the chosen demographic (generally regional).

2) Allows for some sort of sustained, or semi-official, "bragging rights" among the greater SMAC playing community.

Cons:

1) Limitation of player pool among demographic group.

2) Destroys the diplomatic game. Being irrevocably bound to a teammate allows for no backstabbing, no negotiating of territorial rights, and takes the fun out of trading for techs, ec, units, et al.

3) Basically, converts SMAC into a "wargame".

Here's an example of when the model collapses. Over a year ago, Bingmann set up a challenge game between me and cousLee paired off against jimmytrick and Vel. It was a 2v2 game between warlord/hybrid players against vel style builders. It started off fine, got about 50 turns into the game, when jimmytrick dropped out. He was replaced by AnnC, who played a few turns before both her and Vel dropped from the face of the earth.

At this point in time, it became pointless to continue the "challenge" since the parties (one of them, anyway) who were challenging each other had dissolved. At least with a generic game, a replacement player has the ability to infuse a new dynamism into the game. Also, it is easier to fill a slot for a generic game than for a challenge.

Just my $0.02
[This message has been edited by JAMiAM (edited February 10, 2001).]

[LoD]

Thanks guys. It's really great to read all those positive comments .

JAM: Thanks for pointing out the presence of typos. I will run the site through a word processor.

The Polish SMAC global community is actually not that large, at least as far as MP play goes - since the majority connect to the net via the national phone company, which literally rips them off. So, instead of one large net of SMACers, there are local groups in each neighberhoud - you know, two or more friends who are close enough to meet together and organize ad hoc LAN.

The STL matter - I've replied to MoSes letter. Would you like a CC?

LoD

PS. The reason why the connection is so good is because the site is on a server that is about 50m away from where I live - we have a neighbourhood LAN running on a static connection over here. The downside of it is that there are sporadical server failures. Anyway, here's my thanks to the admins .

[JAMiAM]

LoD,

Please do send me a cc. I like to be kept in the loop.

Thanks for the info on Polish SMACers. LAN parties...cool.

[Wiglaf]

Great site!

The load times are excellent on a 56k, no worries there. Good layout, as well.

Congrats

[Fistandantilus]

This is probably the first time I do but I have to disagree with JAM

First of all I find cooperative play as enjoyable as FFA if not more. In team play you have to have different skills, I agree, but SMAC w/o diplomacy is definately not as arid as it seems, actually I like it a lot.

Also, when in a four player game two players drop out is difficult to find replacements, no matter the interest. When Mongoose, jimmytrick, AnnC, Bingmann, Vel and many many other reliable players quit many games died. There's nothing to do about it, it happens, people have different interests and real life is demanding. SMAC PBEMs last very long, you can't ask for everyone to be still interested in a game after a year or more.

Said that, how many PBEM games died? Too many if you ask me. But I don't think it's a problem of team play only (or that in team play is more frequent). Actually I have finished every team game I've played but one (the Italy vs CoC match, a very interesting one, a pity jt and AnnC left ). I cannot say the same for all the FFA I was in. After all in the league there are automatically available subs which are the other components of the team and there isn't the delicate problem of explaining the 'political situation' the the newcomers.

As far as I know there's is only one game still going in the league, the Italy vs SMACeiros game MoSe mentioned in the e-mail. It's going to end soon too though. After that the STL will be a thing of the past.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you why the league eventually died... the real reason is that the Italian team was simply too strong for the others so they all preferred to quit rather than lose badly and repeatedly

Fist

P.S.
LoD can you please send me a cc of the reply to MoSe too? And btw, great site! I didn't know there were that many challenges for SP. If I find the time I'll try a couple of tham. I'm sure Misotu feels lonely on that HoF

[Misotu]

JAMiAM, I can see what you're saying. I suppose I haven't really played in a fixed team set-up - I've played quite a few team games now, but the individuals change each time.

Like you, I've been in a couple of challenge games that ground to a halt after a while. Always disappointing, especially if you're quite a few turns in. But on the whole, my experience has been a happier one than yours I think.

I'd still be interested in giving it a go, despite the cons ...

[Misotu]

Fist, I can recommend the AI's Revenge scenario set by DiDad. When you beat my score, it'll give me an excuse to try it again

[Fistandantilus]

Well, it's been a long time since the last time I played single player but if you ask so nicely I cannot say no.

Do I have to beat the final score or the year of victory?
Oh, don't worry I'll try beat them both...

Fist

[Misotu]

Heh Go for it! I played it with a self-imposed restriction - not allowed to build any SPs. I think the year of victory is the measure myself ...

[Aredhran]

LoD, congratulations on making the first non "SMAC in the Top 100" news on the SMACpolyton site for a long time

I like your design, although it was a bit slow for me (but probably that was just my connection, which hasn't been very good lately).

Unfortunately I don't have much time to review, so you'll have to live with the educated comments from the likes of MoSe, JAM and others.

Good job
Aredhran
[This message has been edited by Aredhran (edited February 13, 2001).]

[LoD]

Thanks Red, glad you like it .
And yeah, I was quite astonished when I saw what was the great news on Apolyton .

LoD